


hiding in plain sight

by kemia



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Kissing, M/M, One Shot, Relationship(s), Witness Protection AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 15:36:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11535204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kemia/pseuds/kemia
Summary: "kurusu akira" can't avoid telling the truth anymore.





	hiding in plain sight

**Author's Note:**

> what's up! i've actually written quite a lot of p5 content (mostly mishima-related content), but i decided this is the first one i'm gonna post. i rly love shuyuu and a witness protection AU kinda came to mind randomly.
> 
> akira transferred to shujin academy and began living in the attic of leblanc after being targeted as a witness by a yakuza ring. this is set about two years after the main story, and akira and mishima live together in tokyo.

Mishima shifted his body uncomfortably in his boyfriend’s arms. He braced his phone between both hands as he looked between its eerie glow and the apologetic look on the other’s face, which only looked more and more dejected with the offset light from the lamp beside them.

“... So, what does this mean?”

Silence followed. Mishima laced his fingers together behind his phone, clenching them together until his knuckles turned white.

“You know you can trust me, right?”

This time, he turned completely around in Akira’s lap, wrapping his legs over his thighs. He looked up, expectantly with a hesitant smile, but Akira’s attention was somewhere else behind his glasses, his frown growing deeper every second.

Akira was the one who had shown him the article about the crime ring in the first place, but he couldn’t understand why even if he tried. He just wanted Akira to smile at him. He wanted Akira to squeeze him when they hugged. The expression Akira was wearing now only made his insides flip and his chest flutter, but not in a good way - the worst way possible.

“... Or do you not?”

Akira’s canines visibly curled into his lip.

“Akira?”

Instinctively, Mishima’s hands came up behind Akira’s ears, pulling the frames away and revealing the charcoal grey of his eyes. There was a quiet inhale, then a louder exhale, before Akira brought himself to match gazes.

“Akira isn’t my name.”

Suddenly, the name he’d just spoken felt like acid on Mishima’s tongue. He went quiet, then ran the article through his head once, twice.

“... Were you a part of that crime ring?”

“No.”

“...I didn’t think so. You’re not like that.”

More silence. He thought it through a third time, but no conclusion made sense. He shook his head, mentally brushing off each and every thing he didn’t want to consider.

He didn’t think Akira was lying. Akira was honestly a terrible liar around him, and he always said his lies with a monotone different from his normal voice that was so easy to read it was painful. Akira never looked so visibly upset when he lied.

“So… you’ve been using a fake name the entire time we’ve been dating?”

The hurt was showing in his voice, as much as he was hoping and praying that it wouldn’t. Every single time Mishima said anything, the silent distress on Akira’s face grew deeper, darker.

“Why?”

“... I can’t tell you. I wish I could tell you, but I can’t. I was just tired of lying about who I was to you. It felt wrong.”

Mishima wasn’t sure in what way he was hurting. Was he hurting because Akira had been lying to him since the moment they met, or was he hurting because Akira wouldn’t trust him?

“So… What am I supposed to do? Keep using a fake name? Should I just keep calling you a name that isn’t even real and pretend this didn’t happen?”

He felt his eyes watering at the edges, and the back of his throat swelled with a bloom of pain as he tried to resist the urge. Just when he thought he was safe in love, when he thought he could trust someone and be trusted in return -

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“... What?”

“Believe me, I trust you. I love you so, so much, Yuuki. I just need you to please understand that I can’t tell you my real name. I can’t tell anyone. I can’t even let _myself_ believe that it’s my name. My name is Kurusu Akira. It has to be.”

Mishima swallows hard and licks his lips nervously, looking down then back up.

Akira’s eyes were filled with genuine fear. It’s only the smallest flicker; Akira never let himself be shaken by much, and that always showed in the way that he came to his defense without batting an eye. That fear? It was shaking him to the core, and Mishima knew that for whatever reason, Akira really _couldn’t_ tell him.

_Rationalize, Yuuki…_

He ended up caught by surprise when warmth spread across his face as Akira’s hands cupped his cheeks, setting their foreheads together.

“I love you. It’s for your safety and for mine. Please understand.”

He did. Mishima didn’t like the idea of such a large mystery always looming over their heads, but he knew Akira loved him, and he loved Akira more. Ever since Akira had transferred to Shujin all that time ago, ever since Akira made him see the sun for the first time, he knew that that couldn’t be changed.

“... Okay. It’s okay. I understand.”

Akira pulled his head back, looking Mishima right in the eyes.

“You do?”

“I do.”

Again, without any warning, Mishima was swept up into a kiss on Akira’s account - his body instinctively hugged around Akira and his arms moved around the back of his neck, pulling him close. Neither of them could bring themselves to break it until Mishima pulled back to breathe, the pain and tears and hurt now gone as he smiled and rested his head against Akira’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Yuuki. I really don’t deserve you.”

“Shh, don’t say that. I love you, too, so don’t worry. It doesn’t really matter to me if you’re Akira or someone else, because you’re you. Like you told me that night, back when you lived at Leblanc ... you’re safe here with me.”


End file.
